Synaesthesia is a psychological process in which music conjures images in the mind’s eye of the listener, often referred to as the joining of senses. One modality e.g. hearing stirs sensations in another modality e.g. colour to create a strong symbolic experience. Sir Francis Galton 1883 wrote about synaesthesia in his book "Inquiries into Human Faculty." This has been moulded and adapted to apply to most music videos. This doesn’t just mean adapting lyrics of the song into visual imagery as most songs don’t just have a lucid meaning that can be read off. As lyrics have do have an important in creating a sense of focus as words in chorus that are repeated are more likely to be significant than some words only said once. Some argue music videos that employ strong synaesthesia superficially impose a visual narrative that wouldn’t be there otherwise, thus removing freedom to create individual visual messages.
The theory of Roland Barthes ‘Grain of voice’ with is linked with synaesthesia is where the voice is seen as a unique communicative tool which allows an artist to create associations for themselves.The grain is imparted in the "very precise space of the encounter between a language and a voice" said Barthes which essentially means that artists make a sort of trademark for themselves which can work alongside a ‘star image’. In terms of music creating a visual image thunder may be represented by crashing drums whereas the sea may be represented by slow soothing synth. This works because we all have a bank of random cultural images provided by intertextuality, this is sense of shared culture, the intertextuality triggers nostalgia through a shared social catalyst. All of this working in conjunction with each other allows a simple thing such as a grain of voice to create mini-narratives unique to each listener, triggered by memories of people places and situations.
Posted by Dominic
Posted by Dominic
